Thursday, June 14, 2007

Starting Over

There is a process that will continually bring us to the point of starting over...again and again. When you get a belt promotion, it's an acknowledgment of the many, many, many small steps that you have taken. It's a chance to look back to see where you came from and how far you have gone. In taking so many small steps, sometimes you lose site of your progress but now the belt shows the culmination of all your hard work. The belt also brings you back to the beginning...the beginning of the next level. I never felt more like a whilte belt than after I got my black belt! This process can also happen within your personal game and understanding of jiu-jitsu. You learn a move and start to get it in training. After a while, people start to catch on and start to counter your move. Now you have to go back and work on a new move or a counter to the counter. It's going back and regrouping, re-evaluating...but now you have more information, more knowledge and experience plus the ability to execute more moves. There is a continual process of growing and expanding your game...and part of that process includes starting over.

Yeah, Felicia, tell us more about your training those first 4.5 years. There's a real story in progress like that. For all of us who want to know what milestones are like, it would help. How long at purple and brown, for example - those are usually plateaus where students hang out for years and years.